Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Final update regarding VIP grand opening party, new streaming policies, and current status of the arcade

To say things have been stressful is a complete understatement at this point. Being in a position where you are granted what is basically an opportunity to provide for the fans is such a huge responsibility and burden to have. I fully understood this situation and still went ahead and tried to succeed in terms of running a Kickstarter campaign just in hopes that I could keep a location healthy and thriving for many years to come. There were points prior and during the fundraising process that I questioned myself and whether or not this was a wise choice in life. On one hand you have an arcade that has provided a ton of entertainment for many people both as a physical location and online through live streaming. On the other hand, it was definitely not a profitable business and was draining me mentally, physically, and financially. Ultimately I did launch the campaign and with the support and love from arcade lovers we were able to raise enough money to make a huge change here. After many months of planning and about a month of hard labor we are now looking at a project that is roughly 80% complete. Many of you that follow our blog and instagram account are up to date as far as the remodeling process and the many problems we have overcome so far. We managed to finish just about everything cosmetically that we set out to accomplish which includes redoing the flooring, patching and painting the walls and ceiling, and most importantly redoing the restroom from hell! We also added new gaming cubicles for that more professional and organized look and reworked our overhead lightning so people won't have an epileptic seizure from the flickering that used to occur. There are two items that we are still waiting on though. One being the truss metal beam system that is not only for awesome decoration but will provide us with the ability to place more lighting to create even more of a special feeling environment for everyone. Another main item that is not quite ready is the stage/stream station. This particular unit is being custom made and hopefully it will be ready within a couple more weeks at the latest.

For the most part we have received very good feedback regarding the direction we took in terms of overall appeal and cleanliness. I can honestly say that arcade is almost too bright and clean at the moment. But clean is usually good so let's hope our patrons have some respect and try not the wreck the place. The restroom has been coined as "glorious" by many and I hope my attempts to bring some class to the place haven't gone unnoticed. I feel as though my ideas and insight have transferred over from thoughts to reality pretty well. I am normally my toughest critic but I do feel a sense of satisfaction when seeing the almost complete product and with all the positive reviews we have had so far I would hope to believe that I am not senile yet. I have put in maximum effort and poured out my heart into this arcade. I am honestly doing this for the people and as I have said before, I grew up in an environment of arcades and gaming and only wish for others to have the chance to do the same. Although time changes things drastically, one thing that won't change is the positivity that comes from competitive human interaction and the importance of improving yourself.

I have put myself under too much stress in setting a date over and over for those who are waiting on our VIP grand opening party. At this point I must postpone it one last time to Friday, September 26th. By this time there is no excuse not to be 100% done with everything we have been waiting on and the arcade will be fully operational. Although we have been open for events and tournaments it is very clear that we are not equipped to operate normal business hours as we are still waiting on the delivery of equipment and more arcade machines that are being repaired. Also by setting this date a month away hopefully people can better plan and make sure they are here! As previously stated, this party will include a DJ as well as food and drink. So come hungry, thirsty, and prepared to have some fun.

Man oh man this blogpost seems to never end, but there are a couple more things that I should address. We have only been open for 4 days and already there have been things being posted and dramatized quite heavily on various forums. For starters, I would like to explain our streaming situation here and this is not a place where I am looking to chastise or single any one out. Our goals here at Super Arcade are to bring games and gaming to a wider audience. At the same time we are also seeking ways to infuse our loyal scene with increased prizes and pot bonuses. To accomplish these goals we have finally organized our own twitch channel which is temporarily under the channel superdojo and a youtube channel under SuperArcadeFGC. Eventually the twitch channel with be under "superarcade" and we will make the proper announcements once the change occurs. Until then please follow us and tune in for all the content we will be bringing to the community. You guys might ask, so where is the problem in all of this? Well first off let me say that Super Arcade and Level Up Entertainment have a streaming partnership and Level Up will still be streaming Wednesday Night Fights, The Runback, and the Melee edition of Super Smash Sundays. Every other stream will be held on our channel and we will have multiple streams available to help bring more exposure for the games that don't get much air time. Prior to this change we have had other people doing a great job providing the work required to bringing the fans and community live streams that benefited everyone. I would personally like to thank the hosts of IEBattlegrounds, Mando and Binkley, the host of our anime tourneys, Joshua Moore aka Jyosua, hosts of SoCalTekken, Vietnam Tom and JustFrameJames, and also a few others who have helped us which include Numakie, Rotanibor, and Wild Wallace. All of these people have helped the arcade and although it may seem as though we are taking away something from some of these individuals, we are striving to bring the scene to a bigger front and achieve bigger and better things for the community as a whole. To go into detail a bit further, I do understand that these people have put in hard work for the community and although they will no longer be streaming here on their own channel, their efforts have not gone unnoticed and hopefully everyone will understand our goals and help us push forward to reach them.

So thats about it for now as I will be posting our hours of operation on our twitter account. Thank you all for your continued feedback and support and hopefully we will see most of you here in the near future! Thanks for reading and talk to you all again real soon!